Statement of Concern

The Great Australian Bight is home to a unique and extraordinary array of marine life. Whales, sea lions, birds, turtles, fish and sponge gardens all depend on its pristine waters. The Indigenous people of the Nullarbor and Western Eyre Peninsula have been its custodians for tens of thousands of years - and remain so today.

An oil spill disaster in the Great Australian Bight would be devastating. Seven years ago in the Gulf of Mexico, the United States was subjected to one of the world’s worst oil spills. The clean up still continues today. But the loss of life and livelihoods, the horrific fate of tens of thousands of oil coated fish, birds and mammals cannot be recovered.

This must never happen to the Bight whose clean and healthy waters support people’s lifestyles and local industries right across southern Australia.

Coastal communities – people from Western Australia’s southern coastlines, across the coasts and peninsulas of South Australia and Victoria, to the beaches of Tasmania – value and rely on our clean oceans, beaches, islands, reefs and fisheries.

We need to support them and protect our environment and our fishing and tourism industries.

Together, we will call for the protection of the Great Australian Bight and we will oppose plans by big international oil companies who would risk this pristine ocean for an oil field.